Good afternoon, all!
My name is Courtney Wright, a short-term intern in the Advocacy Department here at EdTA, as well as a proud alumni of troupe 4777. I'd like to share a bit about a project I worked on with my troupe, as well as some useful tools if you see the value in doing this within your own troupe.
I'll jump right in.
What:
There currently exists no large-scale quantitative data collection and research specifically on theatre students. This shouldn't come as a surprise; attaining a state by state stratified sample of students highly-involved in theatre is no easy feat. This is entirely theoretical, but perhaps this is where we, as ITS troupes, could come in. The International Thespian Society has member troupes in all 50 states. If troupes, such as yours, were to engage in a standardized method of academic data collection with their ITS members, that stratified sample would emerge. The intrigue lies in the fact that this has never been done before— we don’t know what the results could show.
Curious about how my own troupe might stack up, I created a Google form, sending the link to troupe members. The form was a simple five questions, with answers recorded anonymously: Grade, Unweighted GPA, Weighted GPA, ACT (if taken), and SAT (if taken). I then contacted my school’s counseling office to attain a copy of our “profile,” a few-page document which describes average standardized test scores, as well as GPA distributions. Most schools possess informational sheets such as this which are sent to colleges, that students may be evaluated within the context of one’s school. I have attached my school’s below.
After attaining 27 responses, I focused on those from the 18 juniors and seniors who had responded, as both groups had provided data on their junior year GPAs. I found that my troupe’s mean GPA was on-par with my school’s median GPA (median used due to the skewed nature of the distribution), and my troupe’s mean composite ACT score was 0.18 points higher than the average provided on my school’s info sheet.
However, as you know, GPAs, even within schools, are far from standardized. I determined using AP scores in place of GPAs would be more beneficial for the sake of potentially large-scale data collection, which leads me to the…
How:
One of the greatest takeaways I had from experimenting with troupe academic data collection was just how easy it was. I was able to send out a Google form, and within a couple days had all the data I needed. I was able to compute the averages within a matter of minutes, and could even examine distributions and outliers (with the help of my trusty TI-84 graphing calculator). If anyone has any interest in conducting a similar survey, here are some resources one may find helpful:
I have created a sample of a google form which could be sent out to troupe members (Sample google form to send to students), along with a blank summary sheet (attached below in the open forum library) where student data can be listed. This new sample form includes questions regarding a student’s composite ACT, section ACT scores, composite SAT score, and AP exam scores for any AP exam which the student has sat. I also encourage everyone to attain a copy of their school’s individual “profile”— troupe directors may find how their troupe sits within the context of their school quite interesting. Not to mention how highly-involved theatre students (ITS members) stack up against state and national averages for ACT, SAT, and AP exam scores. Thus….
Why:
There is all kinds of data out there regarding ACT, SAT, and AP scores. Check these out:
AP Test Score Distributions By State
SAT Score Distributions by State
Class of 2016 ACT National Score Report
I’ve also attached an example of a state AP score distribution file for my state, Michigan, below.
Were there to exist a large stratified sample, comparing the data incurred from ITS members with national and state data, we may discover some important facts which translate into a foundational advocacy tool. Imagine, for example, if it were found that ITS members score an average of 4 points higher on the ACT reading section than their states’ average? Or that 20% more ITS members received a “5” on a foreign language AP exam compared to the national distribution? Now replace foreign language with psychology, history, etc. Who knows what trends may appear?
As far as an individual school goes, however, there remain some important hypotheticals to be asked. For example, say School X’s troupe had significantly lower scores than the rest of the school? Why might that be?
In summary, we as theatre educators and students know the value of theatre in schools. However, more people understand the value of STEM education, foreign language education, college acceptances, etc. than the value of theatre in the ways we do. Thus, if we can quantitatively tie theatre education into success in these other subject areas, we have ourselves a very powerful advocacy tool indeed. We demonstrate that theatre education is not an art issue, but an education issue.
Thank you for your time, and happy data collection!!
Courtney Wright
EdTA Intern
Side note: Collecting academic data on your troupe is also a great way to get students more involved in your troupe, outside of the Performing Arts Center, so to speak. The collection of troupe data, simple and anonymous as it is, could be a troupe officer’s responsibility, or perhaps a troupe member enrolled in a statistics course. Students may find, as I did, how very interesting it is where the troupe falls within different contexts.
2016-17_CK_Upper_School_Profile.pdf
Michigan_ACT_summary_2016.xlsx
Sample_form_for_troupes.docx.